MacHider Adds Powerful Encryption, More with Hider 2

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Hider 2 is a serious update to MacPaw’s original MacHider program, and provides a wealth of additional features by not only hiding, but now adding encryption of your Mac's sensitive data. Philip Struchkov, Marketing & PR Manager, gave The Mac Observer a demonstration of the new features in this product at Macworld/iWorld 2014.

When first setting up Hider 2, you are asked for a password that will be used to protect your data, and given guidance on if the password is considered strong enough to prevent someone from guessing it. You are also given the option to store this password in your Keychain. 

You can then start adding files to your Hider 2 vault. You can simply drag one or more documents to the Hider 2 application, and they will be added to the Hider 2 vault, encrypted with AES-256, and removed from their original location on your drive. When you don’t need Hider 2, you should choose to lock the application.

Hider 2 Main Screen
Hider 2 Interface Allows Easy Acess to Powerful Features

To restore a document, reverse the process by entering your password to unlock Hider 2, then choosing the document(s) to retrieve from the vault. They will be decrypted, then placed back in their original location on your drive. To help locate your documents, Hider 2 has a handy search feature, and also supports Mavericks tags. To further help organize things, you can also create a group within which you can store documents.

There’s also a menu bar add-on that will let you search for and unhide your documents, as well as lock and unlock Hider 2. External drive support, Finder integration via the Services contextual menu, support for hiding an entire folder, and Secure Notes round out the feature list.

Hider 2 will be available via the App Store on April 2, and requires OS X 10.8+. Retail pricing will be US$19.99, but for a week after release, buyers can enjoy a 50 percent discount.


TMO's travel and coverage sponsors for Macworld/iWorld 2014 are The Omni Group, Kromtech and Other World Computing.